Birds of Fire
by LostOceans
Summary: Max and the Flock are lost after a close encounter with flyboys. the flock need new skills, new friends and these all come with bigger enemies. lots of fighting/action and maybe a hint of FAX.
1. Just Another Day

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, I wish I did, but I don't.**

**Edited Version:**

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Chapter 1. Just another day's work

We were soaring high and powerfully in the sky. Yeah you know _flying_, with _wings_.

Long story short evil people created us; me, Fang, nudge, Iggy, Gazzy, Angel and the dog, total. They gave us bird DNA. Why you ask? Because those evil people are idiots. Simply they thought it was a good idea. We've escaped and avoided them countless times but they keep coming back. Anyway they've never stopped trying to kill us. Does that count as attempted murder? Probably.

We were flying to Paris to find the last five Itex branches. The voice told me I had to go to Paris, and _the voice knows all_. Laughing darkly, I thought of the shocked, furious faces of the whitecoats working in thee small branches of Itex we will bring down near Paris, Strasbourg, Monaco, Barcelona and Venice.

It is strangely peaceful flying. Just my flock, freedom and i, but it can never last long. It's always interrupted, that's how the world goes round; without a moment of peace.

Boom!

"Split up! We've gotta find land!" I yelled as the bullet flew past my head. Looking to where the bullet had been shot I saw the dark cloud of flyboys. Yay! I haven't had a good fight for a while; I was worried they'd forgotten us, not that I don't enjoy injury free days of relaxation, but quiet means plotting enemies.

We were flying over the English Channel. Not the best place for a large fight, long starch of salty water, no cover, no emergency escape. We were tired and hungry from our long flight. This was going to be a very long and possibly painful day.

My life is usually fight or flight. I am an expert at both. But we are outnumbered nearly a hundred to one. Not good odds, yes we've faced worse but it's never ended well. It's usually a mix of luck and skill which we have lots of the latter. "Okay let's go kick some metal butt!" I shouted over the robots death chant, they are so imaginative! Like what mastermind came up with them?

Boom!

The bullet pulled out a few of my secondary feathers. Cursing I did a sharp 180 to face the oncoming attack. I laughed at the almost certain prospect of death, I was most likely going to die today, but that's nothing new it's a weekly occurrence at the least.

Fang glided over to me "Max they're to many."

"I know. But we got to try." I sighed

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"ATTACK!" I shouted. My order was followed immediately. "Lets show 'em what we got!" the flock surged towards the flyboys. My flock, my fearsome fighters.

We were in battle mode and ready to fight, to the death if need be.

I delivered the first robot a rib-breaking kick - to bad they're robots (no ribs to crack!). Throwing punch after punch I was taking them down. Fang was making himself a path through the masses.

My flock all had their own unique ways to fight, Gazzy was crackling madly as ten or so flyboys blew up, Iggy flew over and they hi-fived mid-air.

Nudge was giving the flyboys a lecture about why they should leave us alone, "…you know you're being used to do bad things you don't want to do, but you don't have to do it. you could leave and escape, live your own life…" I almost laughed as her only response was "resistance is futile. We will kill you" and "surrender is your only option."

Angel was unable to use mind control on the robots because of the _lack of mind_. Angel looked over at them and smiled like, well an angel. Angel was throwing quick speedy punches at the flyboys, many collapsed without heads or arms attached.

"AHHHH!" Angel screamed, my baby was falling. I hate guns! They are dangerous and all the things using them are usually spineless idiots.

"Angel! Nudge, get Angel!" I shrieked. Taking a blow to the head. _Ohhh… you are so going to get it._ Landing a kick to the flyboys head, it snapped off.

"Max!" a voice screamed.

That was Iggy's voice. Looking for Iggy I turned a full circle. No Iggy. "Iggy!" I sounded panicked. No please be alright, the entire flock must be whole, no one is left behind.

"I got him!" I heard Fang's voice from below me. Iggys limp body was covered in blood.

I am so mad! Why can't they just leave us alone! I am an explosive bomb of frustration and worry for my family. This had to end soon but we'd only removed about twenty of the four hundred flyboys.

I hate flyboys any day but when they've hurt my family I am one angry mother! Using my super-speed to launch myself at the closest flyboys. Kick here, dodge then punch, and one down. Two quick punches and an elbow in the head, another robot down. I was in a murderous rage; no one could threaten my flock and live!

This angered trance lasted only seconds but felt like hours. Fang came next to me at one point. Together we destroyed another fifty or so.

"Where's Iggy and Angel?" I said turning to Fang.

"With Nudge on the whale Angel called to help."

"Wha-" oh Angel and her freaky mind reading abilities of course who could expect less. Well they were okay at the moment, but Fang and I couldn't keep this up much longer. We are great fighters and all, but we're very badly out numbered.

Kick, punch, punch again, duck, back hand, then kick.

Fang was no longer next to me! _Shit!_ Where is he?

I spotted him plummeting down "FANG!" I yelled, closing my wings to drop after him. Grabbing his arm I struggled to get my wing out again, they were caught in my jacket. Finally they snapped out. We still hit the water with a lot of force, but the impact was surprisingly painful. Pain is only a message I can ignore the message.

Angel, Fang and I can all breath under water. But Fang wasn't breathing anything I had to get him to the surface. Now which way is up?

Suddenly there was something hard beneath me. _A whale? Good ol' mind reading. Thanks Angel. _As the whale surfaced, I found myself gagging on air. _Darn gills._

_Fang._

He was breathing again so that was good. He looked pale and cold. Blood ran down his face from somewhere in his hair. His arm was obviously broken with a few ribs and maybe his leg too. Altogether he looked bad, he'd looked worse though so he'll be okay in a few days.

"I'm OK, Max." Fang whispered spitting out blood.

"hmm…I know." I cleaned away as much blood as I could, then checking for other injuries I might be able to fix.

_Max look out! _

"Wha-"

A flyboy crashed into me. Giving it a punch, its head came off with a slight popping noise.

_Thanks again Angel _I thought. _Are you okay?_

_No I was shot. My wing hurts._

_Okay, I'll be with you in a sec. let me have one more go at 'em._

Fang was ok for now. I had a duty to my flock.

"TIME TO DIE!" I screamed as I flew into the flyboys again. This time was different I was on fire! My feeling of exploding grew as I smashed anything I could reach. Then…

Everything went red, like flames. Intense pain shot up my arms, legs, everywhere, pure excruciating pain! I've felt a lot of pain in my life but this is by far the worst and all went black.


	2. Afraid Of The Dark

Chapter 2. Afraid Of The Dark

"Max?"

"Max? Are you all right?"

"That was great! What did you do?"

"She's awake."

"Max?"

I groaned, trying to sit up and looking at the faces of the concerned flock around me.

"wh- what happened?" _ahhh… my head! This needs some explaining. _

"that was sooo cool, max you've got a new power! Do I get one? That would be awesome! I hope I get something good like yours…." Nudge rambled on.

"Max" fang's voice "you turned into a ball of fire."

"Then you blew them all up!" Gazzy exclaimed. "It was fantastic! Mine and Iggy's bombs don't look half as spectacular!"

"Max! Max! Can you show us what else you can do with fire! Or is it just an exploding fire ball thing? Ohhh… can I try it that would be so brilliantly amazing and sooo cool!"

"Nudge, calm down. I will try out my newest powers later, we can all try. But first things first; who else was hurt or was hurt? Angel hows your wing?"

"Painful and sore I might not be able to fly well for the next few days." Angel looked a bit sad about the last part.

"That's okay, we heal fast so you will be up and running in no time!" giving angel a supportive smile I turned to Iggy "I saw you down, what happened?"

"Two of those over-grown-tin-cans tried to wack me with there guns I dodged both but got a kick to my back as a third had crept up behind me!"

"Are you okay now?"

"Yeah I'm good now."

"Nudge, Gazzy, are you guys okay?"

"Yeah I'm not hurt at all." Nudge said while Gazzy on the other hand said;

"No I lost all my good bombs! The ones I didn't lose got wet and destroyed!" Gazzy over exaggerated the lack of bombs as an 'end of the world' scenario.

Rolling my eyes at Gazzy, he'll find a way to make more, sooner rather than later. I asked where we were.

This time it went quiet.

Then angel said "in a cave somewhere."

"Where's somewhere?"

They all shrugged.

"France?"

They all shock their heads. This was starting to annoy me, not to mention the frantic worry creeping up on me!

I sighed. Then taking a deep breath, I got up and walked to the mouth of the cave. _Okaaaay we are neither in France nor any other place I've been to before. Where are we?_

Time to organise the flock. We need food. Might as well stay a night or two, until we are all healed and ready for a long flight. Grabbing my bag I chucked everyone a muesli bar.

"Let's make camp. We need food, fire wood and fresh water. Angel, nudge, Gazzy, find fire wood and water. Fang, Iggy, we are on food duty. Lets go!" flying out of the cave we started to search for things we needed. I needed a hot shower but I had small hopes of finding one as we looked for food.

We returned to the cave an hour later with a few small rabbits and rats. It was getting dark quickly so Gazzy started a fire, and Iggy cooked our food on sticks. Dinner wasn't to bad, how dose Iggy do that?

Angel sat away in a corner of the cave hugging total. Nudge was talking about the day's events and fang was gone. Probably invisible, again.

I waked over to angel to sit beside her. Angel looked up with a scared expression. I went on alert. Angel scared usually equalled something bad happening. Not good.

"Sweetie what's wrong?" I asked carefully.

Angel got a terrified look "there are other things thinking. Not human. They're in the cave."

"What do you mean?"

"Something's in here with us, max."

"like what?' this is very bad! _Things_ sometimes want to kill us,

"I don't know, but they know we are here." Angel was now shivering, and probably not from cold.

"Okay don't worry angel well find out what it is." Damn what do I do now? _Things _thinking? What kind of things?

"Thanks max"

"Fang, come here, we've got company." We have to check out the cave, otherwise those things might decide they have big issues with us and die trying to kill us. What joy that would be.

"Who?" fang materialised by the fire.

"Donno yet. Shall we go find out?" I walked to the back of the cave where it continued into a dark hole/tunnel. Fang walked into the darkness.

Following fangs lead I called to him "fang, it's so dark, how are we going to see anything?"

"Keep walking." Greeeeaaaaat! We are just going to walk blindly into a lightless hole with things possible in it. Well I could certainly see the cleverness of _that_.

I rolled my eyes. We all have great vision in the dark (Iggy did too, before they tried to improve his.) but we did needed some light. Any small amount of light would be fine.

Wow! It was getting lighter yeah it was slow but I m able to see again. "Fang! I can see a bit! It's getting lighter."

Fang didn't respond but I could see him now so that was okay. The weird thing tho was that it kept getting lighter and I didn't know where the light was coming from. Now I am suspicious of almost every thing so when lights start changing in a small claustrophobic tunnel you know what I do? I get into battle mode, of course.

"Ow! Fang!" I'd walked into fang, who had stopped and was staring at something.

"Fang, what is it…." Then I saw the rocks. They were different colours but all very beautiful. I also noticed that this was the end of the hole and that there was no source of light coming from any where. Pushing fang out of the way I moved towards the first one. It was all white with silver swirls around it. Reaching out to it fang grabbed me.

I glared at fang's hand "what? Fang, it's a rock it can't hurt me." For god's sake it's a rock! That was obvious, plus the worst it could do, would be to drop on my foot and since that was not going to happen fangs protectiveness was uncalled for.

He let go. So I reached out again and picked it up. Nothing happened. I sent a look to fang _see told ya so._ _Ahhh let's run from the killer rock! _He smiled briefly, my heart beat faster.

Putting down the strange rock I reached out to the next one, this one was red, white and black. I picked it up too.

"Should we take some back to show the flock?"

"What ever you want." Oh four words at once, fang was Mr talk-a-lot tonight!

"Okay, pick one you would like to take. I like this one." Holding the white, black and red stone in my hands, I watched fang pick up a smooth black rock same size as mine.

We headed back to the flock. I was a bit worried about the thoughts angel heard; we hadn't seen nor heard anything but us in this cave so far, this unnerved me. There was something angel said there was and she's always right. Fang and I went as far as we could through the tunnel; we were at a dead end. Still nothing moved or made a noise as we passed.

I hadn't noticed but it was a lot lighter now than the previously pitch black tunnel. Something was wrong, very wrong.

We found the flock in the same places they had been in before we left. But as I came out of the hole the flock turned quickly. They looked ready for an on coming attack, another very bad sign. They were relived to see us back.

"Whats sup?" I asked on high alert.

"Max! Fang! It went darker very suddenly, just before you walked in. I know its night and all but it was so, like, sudden. We were sitting here talking when it went dark. What happened max? Why did it go dark? What is that max? Can I have a look? Can…"

"SHUT UP!" We all yelled at nudge. I relaxed an inch; we weren't being attacked, period.

"Firstly I don't know why it is dark it is the same in the tunnel but it went lighter and not suddenly. Secondly I have no idea why it went dark or light. These are strange coloured rocks me and fang found in the tunnel." That answered all questions and explained nothing, _great_.

"MAX! That's what is thinking! The rocks! Only they are not rocks they are alive!" angel almost shouted in panic.

"How can they be alive?" I knew angel never lied and was always right but _living rocks?_

"I don't know max they just are." Angel cried desperately "they are thinking about fire and… flying and… fighting and… lots of things!"

"Okay angel, I don't know how rocks can be alive but if you say so. It's late time for bed kiddies! I'm first watch, Iggy I'll wake you up when it's your turn."

We did our nightly hand staking with totals paw on top.


	3. What goes bump in the night

**What goes bump in the night**

IGGY'S POV

Max woke me up for my shift around 3am two hours later then agreed.

I love taking watch. It's calming and quiet. I can listen to all the nocturnal animals scampering along the ground and in trees. A nesting bird, a hungry spider, a scared rat or two.

We had camped like this so many times before, beneath the stars, trees and in caves. I've got so used to it over the years trying to survive, to be the best at surviving.

Two hours later when hints of orange streaked across the sky, a small chirp came from the where max and fang had put the strange thinking rocks. Stiffening I want on alert. The rocks chirped again it sounded like a strange baby bird. Slowly I leaned over max and gave her a small shake. Her fist shot up breaking my nose.

"ow! Max!"

max's eyes shot open "sorry ig-" my hand cupped over her mouth cutting her off in mid sentence. Making a shushing motion with my finger I released max.

The rock chirped again.

MAX'S POV

Someone shook me awake I instinctively retaliated with a powerful punch to who ever was unlucky enough to wake me.

"ow! Max!" came a voice from above me.

"Sorry, ig-" his hand clamped onto my mouth hard, I caught on quickly and lay still and quiet. Nothing moved not a sound was herd then…

"eeeek"

What the hell was that? Standing up quietly I cautiously walked over to where the chirping had come from, as I slowly walked towards the side of the cave were I left the rocks, I kicked awake fang quietly and motioned for quiet and to follow me.

As we neared the two rocks the thing chirped again I was aware now that it was coming from the one I brought back, it was rocking back and forth making a hell of a racket. What I am I supposed to do? What is this thing?

I gasped; my rock had a large blood red crack which branched into three then four. "Shit," whispered fang, as the rock cracked again with a loud breaking noise a scaly head pop out of the top. It was an egg.

Iggy had got the rest of the flock up quietly, so we were all ready for fight or flight.

The scaly thing finally managed to free it's self from its protective egg casing. It wiggled its self out of the membrane before licking it's self clean.

_Voice? What is it? Come on I know you can hear me! What is it!_ I screamed in my head.

_Hello, max. nice to hear from you again_. Came the disembodied voice

_Cut the chit-chat, what is it?_

_She is a dragon maximum. She is your dragon._

_WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!_

_Istalri is your bonded. _

_Are you going to give me riddles or answers? Coz I want answers! _

The vice didn't reply.

_Voice! Come! back! Now! _

Still no reply

Muttering curses under my breath I turned back to the baby dragon. She was rather cute with a long scaly neck and tail. She was mostly white but had black spine spikes running from head to tail and her wings were like ours but with out feathers it had the same structure and joints. They were black with blood red highlights. Istalri was beautiful and looked hungry.

"Iggy do we have any food left?" I knew we did and iggy was closest "can you pass some to me I think she is hungry."

"um..sure, max" Iggy passed me the 'would have been' breakfast to me. Leaning closer I held out my hand to the dragon, who sniffed the meat before lunging forward and snapping it up. She had rows of sharp white pointed teeth

"hey, I'm hungry too. Don't eat it all." Istalri turned her head to look at the small talking dog, before baring her teeth and hissed threateningly at total, who ran and cowered behind angel.

Gazzy sniggered "I'm liking the… uh… dragon –thanks angel- already."

Istalri slowly walked over to me and curled up by my feet. I sat down and she wigged up to me. She was adorable, I put my hand on her head intending to pat her, and my hand and arm seared with pain, I was used to pain so I didn't react very quickly, only lifted up my hand to see what had happened.

"Wow! What's that max? it looks so cool I'd like one. Could I get a different pattern although I don't think that really would suit me. I would like mine to be like a star or some thing, I mean a silvery flame is nice and all but…" fang put his hand over nudges mouth.

Ignoring the nudge channel I looked transfixed at my palm there was a shiny silver flame. My palm kind of itched but I ignored it for now.

I put my arm down on the dragon again to scratch her head; she made noises of pure pleasure as I scratched under her neck. Istalri rolled on to her back like a dog wanting a belly scratch so I fulfilled her wish.

She rolled around in pleasure for a while before getting up and wandering around the cave snapping at our bags, sneezing on the fire and chewed the fire wood.


	4. The Newest Addition To The Flock

**The Newest Addition To The Flock**

Istalri my little dragon, started trying out her wings they were about three feet long of delicate skin. I ran over to help, she snapped at me!

_That's not very nice I was only trying to help_. I thought angrily

_How can you help me to learn to fly?_ Came the voice from inside my head.

_Are you the dragon?_

_Yes. _A single answer.

_How can I hear you?_

_We are bonded. You are my rider._

_Uh… ok. How do I ride you?_

_When I am bigger you can sit on me and we will fly together._

_I can already fly._

_How?_

_I will show you. _I opened my wings and felt the small dragons shock and surprise. _My wings allow me to fly._

_Will you teach me how to fly?_

_If you would like me to._

_I do._

_Ok, would you like to try now?_

_Yes._

_Ok, hunch your shoulders, head and neck low. Bring your wings up over your head._

Istalri did this and held her position.

_Now jump up with your feet and down with your wings._ The small dragon jumped into the air and stayed aloft for a second before falling back down.

_It worked! I was in the air._

_Yeah, very good. When your in the air you need to carefully pull up your wings again to flap_

_LATER THE SAME DAY…_

"that's it you got it!" I shouted excitedly. By now Istalri was up in the air for about five minutes before she had to come down. The flock had come to support the little dragon and correct any bad flying habits. We had all moved out side and I once again picked up Istalri and flew her up to a ledge above the cave.

The flock also flew up with us and on the count of three we all cannon balled down through the air, whooping and cheering. I was so glad to see my family so happy it was a rare occasion having a day with out attack or mission. Even fang was doing intricate dives and spins through the air, he smiled at me once or twice, which made my heart beat twice as fast.

It was times of freedom like these I loved being a human cross bird hybrid because I could fly, unlike all those people who had never felt the joy of flying!

Fang glided over to my and touched my wing with his, "max,"

"Yes, fang?"

"What about the other eggs?"

"What about them?" I was distracted looking for possible threats.

"Well, what are we going to do with them." and he adjusted his wing slightly and swooped down to nudge and angel.

"Dunno." All's good no one to be seen for miles.

Following fang I landed in a tree with nudge and angel. "What are you up to?"

Nudge looked up excitedly, "hi max, we are playing with out new powers look." She held her hands apart, palms facing each other and with a crackling bang, electricity shot from both hands and into the opposite.

"Wow, nudge that was great. Angel do you have a skill too?" I was still slightly shocked by nudges demonstration.

"Yeah I do." Angel warned us just before she shot thick streams of gushing water at fang and I. I grabbed hold of the tree in time but fang was caught completely of guard. He was thrown out of the tree and hit the ground hard. I started giggling, fang gave me a death stare, but it only made me giggle harder.

Angel looked at me "will you show us yours?"

I was about to ask what she meant then it clicked, I had used fire to destroy the flyboys, or so I had been told. "Um… I could try." How do I do something I didn't know I was doing in the first place?

I concentrated really hard on the tree stump next to fang. After a few seconds the stump burst into angry red flames. I was stunned.

"What can fang do?" following nudges words we stared at fang, who mumbled something uncomprehensive.

"Come on fang!" I encouraged.

A slight nod, fang stared at a dieing bush. We waited a long time before fang finally gave up.

"Shit! You're all aware Iggy and Gazzy have had a very long time alone." I was right when we walked back to the cave, Iggy and Gazzy both had very innocent faces on, to innocent. Not to mention the wires sticking out of Gazzy's shirt.

Istalri gave a gleeful squeak before bounding over to me. _Max!_

Getting everyone to sleep was harder tonight the flock was too exited with the new skills. Iggy and Gazzy had also discovered new skills too. Iggy could speak this weird language fluently. And Gazzy found he could direct dead sticks, dunno how that was gonna help us.


	5. A Dragons Welcoming

**A Dragons Welcoming**

SAPHIRA'S POV

I am so happy! I haven't been allowed to fly with my bonded for a very, very long time.

The endless-blue- sky was more perferablre to the brown-scale-dulling-dirty-ground.

The ever-irritating-varden had received devastating news of urgal attacks, in the spine. Eragon-my-bonded-and-rider and I were flying at top speed to find out what was going on.

The urgals had an agreement with Nasuada-bossy-varden-leader, so they should be in surda with the varden not attacking villages near the spine.

We had passed fenister an hour ago and I was getting close to kuasta. The forest was rushing passed in a blur, I spotted red deer and my belly thundered in disagreement as I flew over my-would-have-been-snack.

_Look Eragon, deer! I'm hungry can I have a small nibble! Please!_ I poured all my hunger into out link.

_You ate three sheep less then an hour ago._

_I am a growing dragon, and need to keep my strength up._

_You will have to wait till we get to kuasta_

_I cant wait, I'm hungry now!_

_*sigh* alright Saphira where do you want to land?_

MAX'S POV

I watched Istalri she had grown a lot in the past five days she was now about the size of a large car. Her scales glittered black and white with the eye catching red and black wings. She had improved amazingly with her flying, she could now take of and control her flight for a few minutes at a time now.

We wouldn't be able to move very far or fast. until she could fly independently for more than an hour; we were stuck in the cave.

The flock and Istalri flew daily; we practiced flying formations and sharp turns. We also had hand to hand combat, which I won all of them.

"can we have a look at the other eggs?" angel looked up to me with Bambi eyes.

I shouldn't have looked but it was too late, the full force of those eyes stared up at me, "sure angel."

"I love you max! Nudge, we get to see the eggs!" squealed angel.

"Really? Max gave in that easily? That's fantastic! I want to…" nudge and angel ran into the tunnel in the cave.

Slightly annoyed I tapped Iggy twice on the hand before running after them.

Nudge and angel stood staring at the dragon eggs fang and I had discovered. Angel skipped over to the white egg cradling it in her arms talking softly.

Nudge on the other hand literally jumped for joy, she squealed as she went immediately to a bright yellow egg.

Gazzy sprinted into the room "cool! Is this one mine?" snatching a dark green egg of the floor. "Ig, I think this might be yours" Gazzy hands him a golden brown egg.

"…is great. We all get a dragon each. We are all dragon riders! Do we get the slivery thing Max got on her palm? I think that would be awesome! I wonder how long till our eggs hatch Max's dragon hatched a few hours later but fang's egg hasn't moved. I hope…" nudge rambled on as we made our way back to the main cave.

Fang was sitting quietly by the fire with a small pitch black dragon nuzzling his elbow.

Nudge went quiet for a second then "oh. My. God. It's so cute fang! Is it a he or she? What's its name? Has it got a name? When did this happen? I can't believe I missed this! Wh…?"

"This is Andlat. He is my dragon." Fang said simply.

Andlat was completely black with more spikes down his back than my Istalri. He was frightening to look at a perfect match for the shadowy fang. Andlat would be invisible to see in the sky at night, he also looked very strong and powerful.

**A/N: the dragons names are from the Ancient Language,**

**Istalri means Flame and Andlat means Death**

** I got these translations from a website, **

**.com/wiki/Ancient_Language**

** Fenister and Kuasta are towns or cities in Alagaësia.**


	6. Dragons in the Distance

**A/N. I hope I did a better job on Saphira's POV this time. Also can I get some more reviews, thanx.**

6. Dragons in the Distance

SAPHIRA'S POV

_Here's fine._

_I'll be back once I catch a snack._

I gracefully soared down through the trees to a small grassy clearing.

My claws dug into the lush grass and Eragon leapt down.

"come back soon" he called as I launched myself into the air again.

Circling above the clearing I watched it until I could no longer see him but I could still feel his minds touch. Catching an updraft and gliding over the forest I searched for my prey.

Spotting a herd of deer I automatically analysed each separate deer's weaknesses and strengths.

I chose a young stag with a pained leg he would be ambushed by wolves soon anyway. It's best to follow the laws of the hunters, survival of the fittest. Folding in my wings I dropped, claws and teeth slashing I dragged the stag down. The other deer fled in terror as I closed my teeth around the dieing animals' neck.

After eating I licked my claws clean and spread open my sparkling blue wings. Bounding forward a few steps I leapt into the wide open sky.

Flapping powerfully to get altitude, I wondered how we were going to find the urgals. They are meant to be on our side now, Nasuada and Garzhvog made an agreement on it.

Lost in my complicated thoughts i tried to find any way in which the urgals could be attacking villages. It was impossible, Garzhvog had been furious about the supposed urgal attacks. he had denied all claims that he was associated, and argued to send more than half of his urgal army to find and destroy any urgals attacking villages. Nasuada was smart enough to know this was a bad idea and that sending thousands of urgals to villages with supposed urgal attacks could only lead to disasters.

But how did a group of travelling urgals go undetected to the vardens many spies? There had been nothing out of the ordinary reported besides the increase of people going missing, but nothing about urgals. They would have been the topic of the reports.

The messengers take a few days to convey the reports to Nasuada and the varden, and the day or so for the spies to write them, leaves Eragon and I about a week behind the 'urgals'. We of course had a plan of action, Eragon will use the spell Arya taught him of changing his appearance, I wait in the bushes near the gates of Kuasta while Eragon walks in and questions some locals about the urgals. I get to wait worried for his life while he finds some other way to get into trouble which I will have to free him from. Every time he leaves me he gets in stupid situations and someone has to rescue him.

What I had suggested was that we kidnap someone coming out of the city and question him/her about the claimed attacks. In my opinion this would work well and we could catch a few travellers to make sure the first story is true. Eragon only pointed out that we couldn't do this because he didn't think that was the right thing to do… and also that we would have to kill the travellers so our presence was not know by our enemies. Eragon would not allow me to kill them so our good friends thorn, the strong red dragon, and Mortag, Eragons half brother, would pay us a visit and then attempt to capture us again.

We were trying hard not to be captured then prisoners to the evil side. I would never join Galbatrix willingly. I trust Eragon to resist as well, that is if we were ever caught, which i will never allow to happen.

Pushing my spiralling thoughts to the back of my head, I noticed immediately six or seven large awkward ornithoid thingsflying with what looked like… dragons? They were to far away to tell but I think they might be dragons. If they were dragons how did they come about? There were at least 4 of the maybe-dragons. And there should only be one dragons egg left to be hatched out of the surviving dragons, I am one of these dragons and so is my enemy thorn.

Feeling a wild joy, I flew as fast as my long sparkly blue wings would take me, flying to the grassy clearing where I'd last left Eragon.

MAX'S POV

The cave was quiet. It was getting close to noon, the sun was high and the birds were singing. Gazzy was sleeping, curled into a small feathered ball, he looked so cute, so venerable, too bad anyone who thought that didn't know him.

The rest of the flock were teaching their dragons to fly. And yes I did say their dragons, now not just me and Fang were bonded, but the whole flock. Last night between 1 and 6 am those smooth, flawless eggs kept us awake. I was on watch so I would have been awake anyway, but still.

I watched Nudge and her dragon Kveykva, who was a sleek yellow dragon without any spikes. Kveykva still had the razor sharp teeth and talons of all dragons, but she was a better build for agility rather than fighting like Istradi and Andlet. She was beautiful, like nudge.

Angel swooped towards me and landed softly "Fang and Andlet have gone to scout the area. They will be back before it gets dark."

I muttered an "ok." as angel jumped out of the cave again to re-join Ilumëo, the delicate white dragon hatchling. Ilumëo was unlike all the dragons he was the third to hatch. With pearl white scales, he had the longest tail which was covered in razor sharp spines, from head to tail tip. Was the perfect match for Angel.

Iggy said that Ilumëo meant truth in that weird language he'd learnt as a skill. Iggy had been muttering those strange words 24/7. Strange words they were.

"Hey, Fang." I didn't bother looking around I knew it was Fang and I knew he was trying to sneak up on me.

"600 metres south-east is a mutant with a dragon." We shared a look. This was not good, we needed to leave immediately. Damn, why do we always find a nice place to rest then have to flee? This had happened so many times before. Every cave, house, tree we were always forced to run.

"Just one?" he gave a single nod. They obviously underestimated us again. Oh well their loss. I had been itching to kick some butt anyway. That is if it comes to that.

After rounding up everyone, we made ready to leave, boring things like destroying evidence of the fire and egg shells, prover to be a bit difficult. For example the shells wouldn't burn and the fire had left black smoky stains on the cave floor, a dead give away that someone had been here.

Once we'd given up on leaving nothing behind, I walked to the cave mouth, looked around and said "shit!"

Emerging out of the trees about 50 metres away was a massive blue dragon and what appeared to be someone on it's back. This dragon was bigger than Istalri, had beautiful long, glistering, blue wings. It was obviously a fighting dragon, just our luck.

We snuck back into the cave. "Maybe they don't know where we are." Gazzy suggested kinda hopefully.

"Nope, they're coming directly to this cave." I hated to dampen Gazzys hope, 'maybe' is a lot like 'I wish' neither happen very often and they never happen because someone said it. This was another fight or flight situation. We had left it too long to do the later so that leaves a fight.


	7. Those Who Play With Fire

7. Those who play with fire

"Was there anything else you can tell us about the mutant or dragon? Maybe like what you think his DNA is mixed with?" I was clutching at straws. We'd been having these whisper conversations for a few minutes.

"No, he has pointed ears and looks like he's going to a medieval fair." Growled fang for the second time.

We were all crouched in the back of the cave, waiting for the dragon and rider to appear. Angel was sitting with Ilumëo in her lap and stoking Total, who was shaking and muttering about big fire-breathing lizards. Iggy and Gazzy were slightly away from everyone; their dragons stretched their necks over to watch the bombs being built. Iggys dragon, Ven was a stunning golden brown, the colour of caramel, was taller then the sturdy green dragon bonded with Gazzy. Nudge was grooming her wings, ordering feathers and pulling out sticks and leaves, Kveykva was doing the same by licking her scales cleaning off the days dirt. Fang and Andlat were dark and motionless, I wouldn't even know they were alive had I not noticed the slight rise of fangs chest up then down.

"They are coming." Iggy was the first to hear them of course, but I wasn't too far behind as a second later I heard it too, the flapping of large leather wings.

We stood up and got into our fighting stances, me and fang in front, Iggy and Nudge on either side and the younger kids behind. The dragons we didn't know what to do with, so they stood beside their bonded.

The light streaming into the cave was blocked out as the huge terrifyingly beautiful dragon steeped inside. The blue dragon took a few loud steps towards me before a man in light armour and a large blue tinted sword dropped down, crouching quickly to absorb the impact, he stood.

"Eka aí fricai un Shur'tugal!" the man spoke with a foreign accent I'd never herd before and that's saying quite a lot, back at The School we had visitors from all over the globe. But we were meant to be in France and we weren't so we could be just about anywhere at all.

There was now a complication on communication with this pointed eared man. I'm quiet sure he would understand getting the crap beaten outta him as a warning. And yet he hadn't attacked yet or made any hostile move towards us, but ya never know.

"How do we know you're a friend or not?" To my surprise Iggy had taken a step forward and addressed the man. What he'd said was obviously in that language Ig got as a skill.

"Why would I not be a friend?" Was his overly polite reply. I think he may even believe us to be helpless children. I had to force my self not to giggle.

It was time to take this conversation to our advantage, while he still spoke English.

"Should we assume all strangers are our best of friends?" I raised my eyebrows in mock surprise.

"Oh no, of course not, but I do mean you no harm"

"And what might you be?" I'd already decided to call him something interesting what ever his answer but don't know what yet. Might help if I knew what he was mixed with.

"My name is Eragon and this is my dragon Saphira." He motioned towards the blue dragon, who was a few steps behind him.

"That was not my question." I said flatly.

"Do you mean the ears?"

I nodded once.

"They changed during Agaetí Blödhren." Seeing my blank face he added "An elvan blood oath celebration." Great that made it so much clearer!

"Ok… why are you here?"

"We are looking for urgals that have been attacking the villages."

"I meant here, inside the cave." Was this lunatic trying to avoid all my questions? What the hell is an urgal? Knowing my life probably enemy mutants, which I'm not sure this guy isn't.

"Well…" and he hesitated here. "Saphira saw dragons here while she was hunting earlier. We have come to ask them to join the Varden."

"No. They aren't going anywhere with you." I stated, we could always fight our way out.

"Why not? It's the best chance they've got at surviving and anyway how do you know they won't come?"

"hmm… well lets see… one, we don't know you and you come demanding to take the dragons somewhere, two, half the crap you've said sounds like complete bull shit! And three, I am Maximum Ride no one commands me!" No more Mr Nice Guy!

There was silence. I stared venomously at pointy-ears.

"They must." Was all he said.

"No, I think you have out stayed your welcome already, don't you?" I commented snidely,

"I'm sorry." And he muttered a few of those words from that mad language. Some hard force made of air closed around my limbs, I'm usually claustrophobic but this was horrible! A firm pressure was squeezing me from all angles making it harder to breathe and my pulse beat harder and louder. The gasps of shock and panic told me the rest of the flock had the same thing happen to them. We were stuck and helpless, I like neither.

Fury seethed inside me and pointy-ears slowly walked around my useless body. But what if I can use one of my skills? I concentrated like I did that day with the tree stump but only this time on Pointy's funny clothes and got a frustrating wither of smoke rise from his shoulder.

Pointy looked around "what are you doing?"

"Something like what you did." I replied mysteriously. I was still panicking from my claustrophobia but he didn't have to know that. Anyway he was a lying idiot who had played with fire.

At that moment his left sleeve burst into brilliant dancing red flames. He yelped and started waving his arms desperately trying to put them out. It was like a funny dance of panic, franticly hitting this arm to put out my flames which wouldn't go out until I released them.

That's when I noticed what ever was held me had been released. So I did the same thing and relaxed the control over my flickering tongues of flame. They died down a bit, but not much. I was felling rather happy and victorious, that must come from holding such power.

"Istrali letta!" the dancing medieval man shouted, and the flames died immediately. I was deeply disappointed.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"Easy." I avoided his questions now, no need to tell him he's up against another mutant, although I'd already told him my name. He didn't react to it so he either expected it or it meant nothing to him.

A strong arm wrapped around my shoulders, it was fang, invisible, but still with me.

"Who are you?" pointy tried for another question.

"I am an elephant." I said dead serious, "this is a banana," I motioned to the partly seen fang. "A hotdog, and a flying cat," pointing to Iggy and Nudge, she gave a little wave. "Then there is also the space ship and surf bored." I gestured to Gazzy then Angel.

"hey, I want to be the surf bored!"

"ok sorry, you can be the surf bored. Oh and the big scaly things are umbrellas." The dragons rumbled with laughter.

"Umm. . . well, like I said before I am Eragon Shadeslayer and this is Saphira Brightscales." Pointy said it like he was someone of great importance and should be well known. None of us knew who he was.

We waited in the silence until pointy finally decided he wasn't getting an answer, so you know what? he asked yet another one.

"What are you doing here?"

"Not much, that's for sure. Are you planning to leave any time soon?" both my answer and my question seemed to annoy him, oh well.

"No I am not. We must take the dragons to the Varden where they will be safe." He said through clenched teeth. The dragon, Saphira growled menacingly. Bad move, all six of us bird-kids growled back, as well as Total and the combined menace of the dragons, created a much more threatening display. The slightly intimidated dragon retreated her neck into a more protective position.

Pointy took another step forward. I shaped a sphere of fire between my hands, fang was gone again and Iggy had a little bundle in his hands with wires poking out of the bomb. The other members of the flock got into a fighting stance. And that wasn't all the rumbling of dragon hatchlings and glares should have stopped any sane person in his tracks.

"I'll get the popcorn this is gonna get messy." I announced cheerfully, I smiled while still glaring at pointy and his dragon.

"I love popcorn! Does it come with melted butter?" Total wondered aloud.

"Sorry Total we're out of butter." Said Iggy.

"Owww I was looking forward to buttered popcorn." Wined Gazzy.

"Max," angel was shaking "he's in your mind!"

GET OUT! I ordered as loudly as I could mentally shout. EVERYONE IS TO GET OUT OF MY HEAD! NOW! I got a satisfying wince from pointy and felt something leave my mind.

"Now that we got that sorted…" I shot a glare at pointy again who looked a bit guilty. "…I think you should run along home."

"I can not the dragons must be safe."

"The umbrellas you mean, why wouldn't they be safe here? They're safer with us then with you. Or are you implying something else entirely?" I spat venomously.

"They wouldn't be safe here because you can't offer them protection. Unlike at the Varden there will be whole armies defending them. No they wouldn't be safer with a bunch of kids then a dragon's rider and a fully grown dragon. If Galbatorix was to gain six more dragons to his side all of Aliglasia would be doomed. World domination would be next and during all that these mighty dragons would be slaves to his will. That is why the varden needs to stop him and that is why the dragons must join the varden."

Wow. I was shocked that was a long speech. But angry at his very little expectations of our fighting ability. What? Did he think we would just hand them over to anyone? I wonder how much is true. This Galbatorix sounds like a spur of the moment name or someone from Itexicon.

"With us, is as safe as anywhere else if not more. I don't know how much of your story is true but we are not splitting up with the dragons. You are going to leave on the count of three or you will be roasted," the ball of fire blazed bigger to emphasise my point.

"One… Two…" I made another two fire balls in the other hand and slowly started rolling them around my hand. I smiled as I said three, neither the dragon nor man had move a step back.

I shot one warning fireball at pointy-ears slow enough that a human could dodge. He said something but what ever it was didn't help him dodge the fire which hit hi square in the chest.

After a moment, I let the flames die out. He didn't move.

The dragon saphia was furious! She opened her jaws and blue flames gushed out, flying straight towards us. A current of water slammed into the fire. I glanced behind to see Angel deep in thought directing the flow.

I wrestled to gain control over the dragon's fire, which kept slipping from my grasp. Why can't I control the fire! The flocks dragons charged at the massive blue dragon who was twice as big as Istalri. I could feel Istalri's bond too, it had been growing stronger the last few days. She was exited for the fight, angry about the larger dragons fire, worried about me and many other feelings rolled into one little bundle in my head.

Our dragons forced saphia outside the cave and into the clouded sky. I cautiously walked over to pointy who was scrambling to his feet and drawing that medieval weapon from his belt.

"Brisingr!" blue flames leapt onto the blades razor edge. I seized control of the flames easily this time, they brightened and turned blood red with a shadowing of black. I killed the flames by letting them die out slowly.

Pointy looked ridiculously surprised and a little scared. He recovered a second later and focused on me and the flock again. I was still holding those two balls I had made before, I throw one at him, slower this time, he stepped easily out of the way.

"your learning!" I called to him with a false cheeriness and smile.

He just stared, as if thinking 'is she insane?'

Well . . . I do sometimes have a voice in my head, as in not my own voice . . . so I could be a tiny bit insane. . .

Insane or not I was going to kick his ass. I ran at him quick as a viper, my intention was to double kick him in the chest while knocking the sword from his grip. But I didn't consider pointy to be just as fast as me.

As I kicked the sword came slashing down upon my arm slicing skin and muscle to a thick bloody flap hanging from my arm. I gasped in shock before the pain hit me full on, but I ignored it gave a full bird-kid power and all, punch to the side of his head.

He fell, sword clattered to the floor. I gave him a sharp kick to the ribs, even though he was already unconscious, he will remember me in the morning.

I sprinted outside flock following, fang looking disapprovingly at my bloodied arm, nudge jabbering on about pain and blood and swords, total agreed with anything she said. Angel being her innocent 6 year old self asked if I was ok. Gazzy looked worried and Iggy just said "I think you should do something about that."

"We need to go now. We shouldn't show them our wings either, call your dragons and we can be riders." I announced, mentally calling Istalri.

_Its time to go finish off your fight and come pick me up, I shall be your rider today._ I felt her excitement and joy though the bond, but also pain, she was hurt, the enemy dragon had raked her claws across Istalri's neck, shallow yet bleeding and very painful.


	8. sorry AN

**Hi, ****I know a lot of people will be unhappy to have an author's note instead of a chapter, sorry. But I'm going to re-edit this story, make a few changes etc. The things I will be changing are the dragon eggs all being found together and the random powers appearing together, also some of the powers are unnecessary, dragon names will change to something pronounceable, any ideas are welcome.**

**I am currently writing the next chapter****, sorry for the delay. It's been about half a year? Really sorry. I would love to blame it on homework, except I never do any, so it just shows I'm slack and lazy for not finishing what I started. By next week I'm hoping to have made those changes and hopefully by the week after the next chapter will be up. **

**Once again****, very sorry for the extremely long wait. **

**q(.;)(… )**

**q(:,)(… )**

**^ Apology snowmen**


	9. 8 Lost Doors

**Hey I'm back, I am really sorry it took so long. lot of stuff been happening in my life, which is honestly all just excuses to make me feel better for not writing. I'm really sorry.**

**I've edited the past chapters though I haven't posted them yet. I still need names for the dragons, I'm terrible at names and if anyone can help I would really appreciate it. I have most of the next chapter written, half of the chapter after that as well, so you can expect some more chapters soon and the edited ones too.**

**I'm sorry it's taken me two years to write a single chapter :( it won't happen again.**

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**Lost Doors**

We didn't fly far. The dragons were too small and the only reason they were able to lift us was because of our incredibly light weight.

Once we were a few minutes out of sight I ordered us to land. After we'd clambered off our dragons I convinced everyone to fly in another direction so as to lose any followers. We flew a mile or so till my head began to feel faint from blood loss and Fang made us stop.

The area we landed in was dense with dark green foliage, and small orange flowers. I let Iggy see to my sword cut, he cleaned and stitched it up neatly and lectured me on how I could avoid making the scar worse.

I sent Gazzy and Nudge along with their dragons to scout our area, while Fang sat in the tallest tree watching the darkening sky. We couldn't have a fire to night, despite the thick green canopy above which would hide a lot of the smoke; we were just too close to where we'd left Eragon and Saphira.

Nudge returned shortly and informed us that she and Gazzy had found something that I needed to see. "What is it?" I asked as we walked.

"Well Gaz and I were doing what you told us, making sure no-one is around and looking for stuff," she looked at me for confirmation so I nodded. "Yeah, so anyway we came to this really this bushy stuff with spikes, and we couldn't get through it and Gazzy suggested we go under it cause, you know when bushes and stuff have that space between the dirt and the branches? Gaz thought we should squeeze through that, and I didn't want to get my clothes all ruined with mud but when I said so he just said they were already ruined, and they are! The flyboys owe me a new shirt, and look at my skirt its got oil stains all over it…"

Eventually we come to the described bush, still having no idea what was beyond it. We crouched down then wiggled our way under. "Hey Nudge? That you?" Gazzy asked as we came closer. I couldn't see him but as we squirmed our way forwards eventually I saw the hole.

It wasn't really a hole, but stone stairs carved into the ground. They had the look of being neglected and no use over the last decade or so. There were about ten stairs leading down to a thick wooden door.

The Gasman stood by the old door picking at the lock. Iggy had been giving him lessons but they hadn't progressed much by the look of it.

"What's in there?" I asked curious to what could be hidden in the middle of nowhere.

Gazzy turned from the door, "Don't know. I'm hoping for treasure!"

Smiling I said "And what would we do with that treasure?"

"Sell it and buy a mansion with a pool and tons of sky and no neighbours! We could even make a pile of gold and jemstones for the dragons to sleep on, don't all the stories say that?"

"sounds like a plan" I said laughing. "now let's open this door."

I shoved my shoulder into the door, it gave a pained creek but otherwise held. I pushed harder. Gazzy and Nudge lent their strength. Together we struggled but the door held firm.

Stepping back I considered our options. We could go back and get Iggy to pick the door or Fang to try force it open. Gazzy could probably blow it open but that could make the ceiling inside unstable. I could try light it on fire, that could catch on anything inside and I wasn't very sure I could do it anyway.

Stuck with my unwillingness to crawl under the thorns any more than necessary. I studied the door. It was solid wood, originally painted a green colour, though most of the paint had faded or rotted off. Brown vines stretched across and when I moved them some were green inside while others crumbled as though they'd been here so long they'd turned to stone.

Beneath the spidery vines I could make out carvings. In the limited light they were hard to see but when I traced them with my finger I recognised them as the symbol on my hand.

On pure instinct I asked Nudge and Gazzy to place their marked hand on a symbol. Oddly it turned out there were three of the carvings. With all our palms placed over the symbols the wood began to warm. I heard a gasp from Nudge and looking over I saw a key appear in the lock.

"Nudge" I said, "turn the key."

A numbness began to creep up my arm and bright light glowed from beneath our three hands. Shakily Nudge reached out to the key with her non-glowing hand and twisted the key a quarter of the way before it stopped, Nudge twisted harder, nothing happened.

"the other way" Gazzy said trembling from the numbness spreading up his arm.

The key turned the other way and a loud thunking sounded as the latch released the lock. The door swung open.


	10. 9 A Dogs Story

**I need dragon names... anyone with ideas please review or PM. I'm completely lost with names, so please help. otherwise they will stay as they are and be unpronounceable and hard to remember.**

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My head pounded as I kept thinking about my disastrous fight with those strange kids.

That girl, Maximum Ride, was definitely a magic user. To have such control over the flames, and she didn't need to speak aloud. Very few magicans could claim that. She had taken his control over Brisinger's fire, he hadn't even thought it possible, till now. Brom had once said something along the lines of 'what is possible is subjective'. Maximum had also used magic to move faster and I only just reacted in time. The cut I gave her must have hurt a lot but she didn't even glance at it. Is she magically immune to pain?

The young man beside her, who kept disappearing? How much energy must he need to keep himself fading in and out of sight? He has to be a least as powerful as the girl.

The youngest, the cute little girl with curly blonde hair. How did she know he'd entered Maximum's mind? To know that, the girl would also have had to be in the older girls mind. She also sent a wave of water to intercept Saphira's fire. Where did so much water come from? Why use water, when it was obvious they could take control of the fire? Sucking so much water from the air would have been a humorous drain on her energy. It also would have made the air dry, though from what I can remember the air was just as humid as it had been.

And the small dog? it spoke. I'd never even considered trying to use magic to make a dog speak, where would you start? What good would it do anyway, to hold a conversation with a dog?

The others the tall one, the small blonde boy and the other girl. Were they magic users to?

Too many questions. Too few answers. I think I handled the encounter badly.

He'd spoken plainly and underestimated them. He'd let a bunch of children get the better of him. How? he was a more than adequate swordsman, fluent in the Ancient language, and most importantly he was a Dragon Rider. He had the full support and backing of Saphira. Her presence should have been fearful enough to measure some respect! But they treated him as a joke. Why?

Someone must have taught them magic before they got their dragons. That explained their skill. Who would apprentice so many children so young?

I must be missing something.

Eventually I put it out of my mind. I'd worry about it once the urgal problem was gone and if we ever saw the children again.

It wasn't long until we left the spine and settled down for the night.

_Saphira?_

_Yes, little one?_

_I don't think we should have a fire tonight. If the kids are close we don't want reveal where we are. They might show themselves, if we are lucky._

_That's a good idea._

* * *

Saphira woke me as soon as the sun rose and we once again started out for Kuasta.

Rather than the dense tree covered mountain ridges of the spine, we passed over well-tended farm crops and livestock grazing pastures. Of course there were still large tree groves between farms, but they lacked the sense of mystery and life, I'd had always found in the spine.

We reached the city just before midday.

Saphira hid in the small forest beside the city and I cast a spell allowing me to look less like myself. Kuasta was a large city with similar buildings to Teirm. The Street layout was less organised and narrow paths wove between dirty brick housing and shops.

I wandered the main streets, stopping at stalls along the way, whilst eavesdropping on the local peoples conversations. Most of the talk was about what they were currently doing, buying food or clothing, some was gossip such as a young couple having a shouting match down the road, a lot was News of a shipment of colourful and exotic dyes sinking not far from the city and causing the waters to be a faint red-ish purple.

Everything I heard was of little or no value, and wasted the little time Saphira and I had for this endeavour of the Vardens.

Something did perk my interest slightly. One man buying roofing shingles commented on how much "those bloody beasts" were costing him, the stall attendant nodded knowingly and had said "they came by mine too."

I also thought there should be more children about. Most cities I'd been to had dirty children scampering between stalls and people chasing the odd stray dog or something. Kuasta didn't seem to have that. The few children hung close to their mother's shirts or in the father's arms.

As the day grew longer and the shadows stretched, I found myself looking for an inn. The first few I entered claimed they were full, despite the obvious emptiness of their common rooms.

Eventually I found a fairly large inn down by the docks. The innkeeper was nailing the front door back onto its frame. He gestured for me to come inside, "damn door don't want t' go back on."

"What happened?" I asked.

The inn keeper gave a shrug. "Ma dog, Billy, was barking at a cat or something so I open the door, tellin' him to shut up and such. There be these huge dog monsters," he gave me a look, nodding, he continued, "that my dog billy, been so brave so to scare them away an' I goes out too tell 'im off. They dog-monsters they don't take too kindly to m'self, they came a howling and snarling at me. So I close ma door and hide down in da wine cellar till they go."

"They broke down the door?" I said in disbelief. The door was thick old wood, well oiled, not a sign of rotting and had three solid hinges and heavy bolt lock.

The big man nodded "m'hmm, after they went through my billy." And held up a frayed length of rope, which could have been a collar.

We spoke a bit more, he told me a ruff description of the dog-monsters "big they were, brown and grey, hairy all o'er. More like ah wolf than a dog I'suppose." They attacked two nights ago and caused damage to a lot of the houses in the city. Few people were killed and apparently children were taken.

Claiming the dog-monsters came from the heart of Du Wardenvarden, in response to a curse that a disgraced magician had placed on the city, after his mother became ill of an incurable disease and none of the city healers could save her life.

And all of a sudden the innkeeper became a whole lot less reliable.


	11. Secret Treasures

**Really sorry it has taken me this long to post and with such a short chapter.**

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and added as a favorite story.  
**

* * *

Chapter 10

Carefully we entered the dark room. We paused to allow our eyes to adjust, as dark shapes slowly took forms, I could faintly see but not distinguish

From behind me Gazzy lit an ancient looking oil lamp that hung from the wall. The sudden shock of light burnt away our night vision blazing everything white for a moment. Once recovered a pool of golden light surrounded us revealing the nearest shelves stacked high with old-style books. Tapestries hung from the walls depicting violent battles of men and women with pointed ears fighting ferocious dragons. Above the fighting, surrounded by a halo of light, a proud white dragon stood beside one of the pointy-eared men.

Nudge wandered over to examine the books while I helped Gazzy light more lanterns. There were five rows of shelves that reached from ceiling to floor and were much longer than my wingspan. Thick books bound in leather sat pillared on the shelves.

After the shelves came what Gazzy described as an armory. Row upon row of swords, spear, bows and arrows, all kinds of knives, and a great many things I have no name for. They stood gleaming, held up by wooden stands, full suits of plated metal armor protected wooden scarecrows, and shields displaying coats-of-arms or symbols none of them recognized.

"should we take a weapon?" Gazzy asked hesitantly.

"What? Of course not. They are dangerous and could hurt ourselves." I said wondering at why he'd asked.

"but the guy with the dragon had one and how else can we defend from a sword."

"I beat him without a sword. Anyway none of us knows the first thing about using a sword."

"He was surprised, next time he will better prepared, Max. We could learn to defend against them." Gazzy begged. "At least it's not a gun."

I was still shaking my head.

"Can you talk to Fang about it, please?"

Before I could reply Nudge walked over carrying an armful of old books. "ok so I was looking at all the books and stuff, and they are not in English. They're, like, kinda similar letters but with extra lines and dots on top-"

"Titles." Fang had approached silently, Iggy, Angel and Total followed behind.

I was annoyed that he wasn't keeping watch and a little angry he'd followed. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. " there is a dragon circling the area."

"Ilumino's watching them." Said Angel, "we thought we'd come see what you're doing. And I agree with Gazzy."

I gave her a look but didn't reply.

"Sooo…." Iggy took a moment to exaggerate looking around. "Where are we?"

Gazzy described the cavern to Iggy and they moved off to feel the weapons and discuss the advantages and drawbacks of each style. Fang and I listened to Nudge explain the oddities she found in the books. They were hand written in strange letters we were unfamiliar with, many had beautiful hand illustrated pictures and while some letters were similar they didn't form any words we were familiar with.

Eventually we decided the books were absolutely useless to us. Even ignoring the language barrier we could never have read such large volumes with our limited reading abilities. Some of the scrolls on the other had detailed maps of a continent we'd never seen before, most we weren't able to read names of cities or land marks. But some very few were in English, none of the cities, rivers, mountains, or forests were familiar.

I left Fang and Nudge to admire the armory and went in search of Angel and Total the only members of the Flock I couldn't see. I wandered past row upon row of swords, then bows, then shields. Eventually I passed the last lantern I'd lit and knew Angel had lit the next few.

The walls narrowed into a corridor and the floor descended down veering to the left. I quickly caught up with Angel and Total in a smaller room which I estimated was directly beneath the armory. I stood beside Angel, but before I could open my mouth, my eyes caught the glittering light of a huge orange gemstone.


End file.
